The NFL has informed Arizona Cardinals backup cornerback Kei’Trel Clark he is being fined in the amount of $6,651 for violating the league’s rules about not wearing or displaying personal messages either in writing or via illustration on game day.
Clark inscribed the eyeblack strip he wore under his eyes with a personal message during Sunday’s game between the Cardinals and the Los Angeles Chargers. And the message Clark wrote?
“Glory Be 2 God…”
Clark also included a peace symbol between the “Be” and the “2.”
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The NFL sent Clark a letter via email this week informing him of the fine and giving him details about what brought it about. The letter reads:
“During the Arizona Cardinals-Los Angeles Rams game on September 13, 2026, you were in violation of the NFL Uniform and Equipment Rules.
“Specifically, you displayed a personal message on your eyeblack. Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8, Item () of the 2026 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League states that, “throughout the period on game day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience (including in pregame warm-ups, in the bench area, and during postgame interviews in the locker room or on the field), players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office.”
Clark’s salary cap number this season is $1,197,150. A CBA appendix states a player cannot be fined more than 10 percent of his per game salary-cap charge.
Clark, in his fourth NFL season, confirmed he was in receipt of the NFL letter on his Instagram account.
And although he seemingly questions the fine because he added a questioning emoji and an illustration of Spider-Man in the pose of the thinker, Clark is apparently at peace with it all.
“I got to report to God at the end of my days on the day of judgment!” he wrote. “I’ll always give God the Glory and out loud.
“All good.”
Clark is at least the second NFL player to be fined this week for violating the personal messages section of the uniform code.
Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was informed he will be fined $11,492 because he inscribed the name of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab on his eyeblack as tribute to her death in Gaza.
The NFL is fining Al-Shaair for what he has admitted to be messaging meant to bring awareness to and stop what he calls the genocide of Palestinians by Israel.
And on the surface, the league is also fining a Christian for giving glory to God.
Except that Clark is not a Christian. Like Al-Shaair, he has espoused the Muslim faith.
The header on his Instagram account reads, “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful” in Arabic.
Last year, Clark posted an ode to his preparation and toughness.
“I put my heart into this $h!t, it’s always been bigger then me,” he wrote. “Only Allah Knows.”
It should be noted that God and Allah are not the same although some people, obviously including Clark, use the names interchangeably.
The Judeo-Christian God is the God of Israel. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And His son is Jesus Christ.
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And while Allah is the Arabic word for the God, he is not the father of Jesus Christ. He is not part of a trinity.
Islam teaches that humans can know Allah’s will and his commands, but cannot intimately know Allah.
Christianity teaches God is immanent. God has relationship with His creation by walking with us, speaking with us, and even sending the Word (Jesus Christ) who was with God and is God at the beginning of time to be among us.
The Allah of Islam loves humanity conditionally upon righteousness. The God of Christianity loves humanity unconditionally and, indeed, the Bible says God is love.
The NFL doesn’t care about any of this. It will be taking $6,651 out of Kei’Trel Clark’s next paycheck regardless of what God he put on his eyeblack.
